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Contents

Plot

Roman calls Niko right before Michelle and Niko have their date (the call will usually occur when Niko is within a few blocks of Michelle's place). Roman says he is being injured by some Albanians in the basketball courts in Firefly Projects. Niko arrives promptly and fights off the first wave of Albanians, Bledar Morina and Kalem. Roman spots another Albanian getting away, Dardan Petrela. Dardan gets into his car and escapes the basketball courts. Niko and Roman get into Roman's Taxi and chase Dardan. Both cars stop near a staircase in BOABO. Niko chases Dardan solo, and kills Dardan in a fight. Niko Bellic then drives Roman back to his cab depot, and tells him about Ray Bulgarin.

Mission objectives

In order to complete the mission the player must:

Go and rescue Roman.

Beat up Bledar.

Beat up Kalem.

Go and help Roman.

Chase Dardan.

Dardan has abandoned his car. He's escaping on foot up the staircase.

Take out Dardan.

Get in Roman's car.

Drive Roman to the garage.

Walkthrough

The Phone Call

As the player nears Michelle's place for his first date, Niko's cousin calls to ask him for help; the Albanian Mafia loan sharks have him trapped on the basketball courts in the Firefly Projects. The player can choose to either ignore this call completely (in which case the above is not heard), decide to ignore Roman's call for help and continue with dating Michelle, or skip the date and attend Roman (if this happens Niko will later apologize to Michelle and will have another chance to date her).

If either of the first two options are chosen, following the date with Michelle Niko receives an angry phone call from Roman telling him to pick him up at the hospital and drive him to the taxi depot. This adds an extra task, but is not considered part of a mission (i.e. there is no reward for doing this). Soon after returning Roman to the depot, Niko will receive another phone call from Roman indicating that Roman is under attack (again) at which point the mission proceeds as it would have had Niko skipped the date earlier.

The player must follow the radar blip to the basketball courts. Upon reaching the basketball courts, Bledar approaches Niko, while Kalem continues to beat up Roman. An onscreen tutorial walks the player through melee combat techniques. The player must defeat Bledar and then Kalem in hand-to-hand combat. As Niko approaches Roman, a cutscene shows Dardan who runs away.

You may also pick up the baseball bat in front of your safehouse (you could find it in the weapons map). You can beat up Bledar and Kalem with this weapon in the mission or you may also ram through the fence with the vehicle you have and run them over.

After fighting off Bledar and Kalem, Dardan waves and get's in his car (beige Willard). Niko and Roman enter Roman's taxi and chase Dardan. The chase leads eventually leads to BOABO, where Dardan stops, gets out, and flees up a flight of stairs into a large room, bordered by floor to ceiling windows. When the player enters the room, Dardan will draw a knife and attack the player. At this point, the game provides instructions on how to disarm an enemy, prompting the player to take Dardan's knife and use it against him. The player can also simply beat Dardan until he crawls over towards a window; hitting him again will trigger a small cutscene in which Dardan falls through the window, onto an overhang, and into the Humboldt River, though the fight is considered over even if this doesn't happen; Niko is considered to have won if the on-screen instruction to return to Roman's car appears. Whichever method is used, once Dardan is dead/disabled, Niko must return to Roman, and drive him back to the cab depot.

Video Walkthrough

After the Mission

After completing this mission Roman will begin contacting Niko periodically, asking him to go on friendship activities with him.

Trivia

If the player chooses to continue the date with Michelle, Roman will be beaten up and sent to hospital. The player will have to go to the hospital and give him a lift back to the cab depot.

Whilst after Dardan, you can take the Crockett Ave and drive straight without needing to follow his car because the road you take leads to BOABO where he'll stop his car. It's far easier than following his path, which could cause you to run into walls, objects or scripted traffic accidents.

Dardan in particular can be dealt with in multiple ways: The player can simply beat Dardan up, shoot him, seize his knife and use it against him, or push or kick him out of a nearby window, triggering a cutscene of Dardan falling to his death in the Humboldt River. If the player kicks Dardan out the window, Niko will express dismay that he had to kill again against his own promise after arriving at Liberty City.

When parked by the taxi at the beginning of the mission, Dardan's car is invincible, even to RPG, and the player cannot drive it.

The whole traffic during the chase is scripted (as are numerous other missions in the game). The vehicles seen in the traffic are not random: a Bobcat, two Marbelles and two Vigeros are seen in Crockett Avenue, two Mananas, one Marbelle and a Vigero in Mohawk Avenue, a Manana, a Marbelle and a Bobcat in Bart Street, a Bus, one Vigero and one Marbelle in Delaware Avenue, two Merits, three Yankees and five Marbelles in southern Mohanet Avenue, two Marbelles, one Merit and a Trashmaster in Chicory Street, and one Marbelle and a Pony in northern Mohanet Avenue.

During the mission when you are chasing Dardan with Roman and his car, if Dardan has a significant lead on you, Roman will sometimes shout something along the lines of "He's got a broken arm, and he's still out-driving you!"

During the fight with Dardan, he wears a blue and grey undershirt under his jacket, however when he is kicked out of the window, the cutscene will sometimes show him wearing the white undershirt he wore in Three's a Crowd.

It is possible for Dardan to survive if beaten to low health then repeatedly nudged into walls, railings and down the stairs to injure him (this will ensure he survives and that you don't accidentally beat him to death). Niko will simply say "There's what we owe you Dardan, nothing else". Dardan will then either lie on the floor breathing, or get up and limp away. It is unconfirmed whether this changes anything in the game, even dialogue seems to remain the same, albeit with Niko's satisfaction that he didn't kill Dardan.

If you abandon Roman's Taxi it will trigger a cutscene of Niko and Roman getting off a Bus, which cannot be used as public transportation during gameplay. This suggests that the player could take bus rides in the beta. The game otherwise won't allow you to leave in another vehicle, such as Dardan's car. Depending on how much damage was done to Roman's car during the chase, abandoning it may be the only option.

It is possible to kill Dardan with a drive-by before he reaches the stairs if you are quick enough. You can only do this while he's out of his car.

It is possible for two Roman's Taxis to exist in this mission. Just simply go to the basketball court in Roman's Taxi. However, after you have completed beating up/ killing Dardan's goons, the Taxi you had originally came in will have disappeared.

It is possible to kill Dardan during the chase itself. You must get close to his car and then shoot it enough times for it to catch on fire. When it does, Dardan will fly out the door, hurt, but alive. Finally, shoot or run him over to finish him off.

There is a mission in Saints Row 2 with the same name, although it is a lot different from this mission. In this one, you have to beat up the Albanians and chase and kill the main target. In SR2, the protagonist walks into an ambush by a rival gang, and defends his friend until help arrives. Then you have to blow up pursuing vehicles with an RPG.

If the player takes Crockett Ave instead of following Dardan, he will drive extremely fast to keep ahead.

If the player kills Roman without attacking Bledar or Kalem before the cutscene, they will walk off like nothing happened. Also, if you target them, the health bar will appear red on both of them, however if you get close to them or attack them they will not fight back or run away. They will act as if nothing happened. Killing them will also not affect the storyline.

There is a glitch where when the player punches Dardan and then he falls out of the window, he will sink into "blue hell", but Niko will act as if he killed him.

There is a somewhat rare glitch where Bledar will be next to impossible to defeat. Even using guns, it takes numerous headshots to kill him. Another glitch that accompanies this is that Roman may inexplicably die while you are fighting the thugs. It is unknown what causes this.

This mission introduces the melee combat system, along with melee weapons. It also marks the first storyline murders of the game.

Once of four comments will be made after dealing with Dardan, each depending on how the player chose to stop him.

If the player beats him up or shoots him, Niko will say "There's what we owe you, Dardan. Nothing else."

If the player kills him by throwing him out the window, Niko will say "Argh! I promised myself I wouldn't kill people here."

If the player disarms Dardan and uses the knife against him, Niko will say "You shouldn't play with sharp objects, Dardan."

If the player manages to perform a drive-by on Dardan after he exits his car, Niko will not say anything, but Roman will quip "Wow, thank you cousin."

While Niko is fighting Kalem, Kalem mentions that Dardan is his brother. This is odd, since they don't share the same last name, which means they where likely either half brothers or that Kalem just thought of Dardan as a brother.